Jervis Langdon, Jr.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/99801194/jervis-langdon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jervis_Langdon_Jr.

Jervis Langdon Jr. was an American railroad executive who was president of Penn Central, B&O, and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad.

Langdon was a member of The Hill School class of 1923, but was expelled due to participating in a party where alcohol was involved (although he did not consume it). He then matriculated at Cornell University, and graduated with the class of 1927. He was nominated for the Rhodes Scholarship, but was ultimately not selected.

He served as a Colonel in the Army Air Force during World War II.

Later in life, he donated his family house Quarry Farm to Elmira College for the use of Mark Twain studies.

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Jervis Langdon Jr., a top railroad executive during an era in which the industry was reshaped, died on Monday at his home in Elmira, N.Y. He was 99.

The cause was congestive heart failure, said his wife, Irene.

During a four-decade career, Mr. Langdon was president of several of the nation's leading railroads, including Penn Central, the Baltimore & Ohio and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific. It was an era that began as a boom time for railroads and ended with many railroads in bankruptcy.

One of Mr. Langdon's management goals was to have railroads develop realistic cost-accounting procedures that would allow them to analyze how much money their various passenger and freight services were making or losing.

Mr. Langdon was a great-nephew of Mark Twain and kept a large picture of him in his office. He grew up in Elmira, and, after graduating from Cornell Law School, went to work in 1931 for the Lehigh Valley Railroad, first in the office of the foreign freight agent and then in the legal department.

A decade later, he was hired as a lawyer by the New York Central and, subsequently, by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad as a vice president. During World War II, Mr. Langdon was a colonel with the Army Air Forces, flying transport planes in Burma and India.

In 1961, after serving for five years as general counsel of the Baltimore & Ohio, he became that railroad's president. By then, consolidation among railroads had begun as passengers increasingly favored cars and airplanes over train travel and railways and truck companies increasingly competed for freight. In 1963, Mr. Langdon left the Baltimore & Ohio after a takeover by the Chesapeake & Ohio. The next year, he became president of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, known as the Rock Island. He was appointed a trustee of the Penn Central Railroad in 1970 during its long-running bankruptcy, and later became its president. He retired in 1976 after Penn Central became part of Conrail.

In 1982, he donated a family home in Elmira, known as Quarry Farm, to Elmira College for use as a center for Mark Twain studies. Twain spent several summers at the farm.

Along with his wife, Mr. Langdon is survived by three sons, Jervis III of Potomac, Md., Halsey of Linthicum, Md., and Charles of Pasadena, Md.; a daughter, Lee Kiesling of Elmira; and two grandchildren and a great-grandchild. His first marriage, to Jean Bancroft, ended in divorce.